The Nation-State and Global Order: A Historical Introduction to Contemporary Politics

This introduction to contemporary politics examines the historical construction of the modern territorial state. Opello and Rosow fuse accounts of governing practices, technological change, political economy, language, and culture into a narrative of the formation of specific state forms. This revised edition reinforces their central argument that the current neoliberal state does not represent a fundamentally new form, but is an attempt to reconstitute the managerial state in the context of globalization.

Stephen J. Rosow is professor of political science at the State University of New York, Oswego.